'Cuckolding' spy Henry Jermyn fathered 2 monarchs

A SHADOWY courtier with access to a Queen’s bedroom could have fathered two Stuart kings.

Spymaster Henry Jermyn bankrolled Charles I during the civil war and had a 45-year love affair with his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria.

A new book, The King’s Henchman by Anthony Adolph, reveals how Jermyn’s fluent French gained him unrivalled access to the Queen’s bedroom.

As a young man Jermyn travelled to France as part of an embassy which would conclude marriage negotiations between Charles I and the French princess. After their marriage in 1625 she was isolated from her husband by the scheming Duke of Buckingham and sought solace in the arms of Jermyn.

Pictures of Jermyn and the young Charles II show striking similarities. Both men would have towered over the diminutive Charles I. He was about 5ft 5in while Jermyn and Charles II were both over 6ft.

Anthony Adolph is one of Britain’s leading genealogists and for 20 years has been researching Jermyn, who also built Jermyn Street and St James’s Square.

If the truth came out that they were not Charles I’s sons it would have boded very badly for them

Anthony Adolph

The consequences of Jermyn’s secret dalliance with the Queen would have been catastrophic had it been discovered and Britain could be a very different place today.

Mr Adolph said: “If the truth came out that they were not Charles I’s sons it would have boded very badly for them. It is unlikely Charles II would have been restored and then perhaps England and Scotland would have lived under a military dictatorship.

“No James II would have meant no Glorious Revolution to overthrow him and that means no birth of Parliamentary democracy.

“If Henry Jermyn was the father of Charles II and James II, his greatest contribution to British history was keeping his mouth shut.”

Only 80 years previously straying spouses were executed by Henry VIII.

Suffolk-born courtier Jermyn, who was once very nearly caught with the Queen, realised he had to keep a lower profile.

Jermyn would serve as head of the Queen’s household until her death in 1669. They shared exile after her husband was beheaded in 1649 and there were rumours they secretly married.

Jermyn acted as a father figure to the Charles II and was friends with Samuel Pepys and Louis XIV and remained a loyal royal servant until his death in 1684. Although Charles II did not have a ­legitimate heir he had children by several mistresses.

Princess Diana and Princes William and Harry are descended from him by that route.